MFA: Finland vice-chairs OECD Ministerial Council Meeting

MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
http://formin.finland.fi/english

Press release 103/2016
30 May 2016

Finland vice-chairs OECD Ministerial Council Meeting

The annual Ministerial Council Meeting (MCM) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD will be held in Paris on 1-2 June 2016. The main theme of the MCM will be higher productivity and inclusive economic growth. The meeting will be chaired by Chile, with Finland, Hungary and Japan as Vice-Chairs. 

Finland's representatives at the meeting will be Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Lenita Toivakka and State Secretary Olli-Pekka Heinonen, who have also been assigned major chairmanship duties in the capacity of one of the Vice-Chairs. Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Toivakka will participate, for example, in the sessions dealing with Agenda 2030 and trade and investment. State Secretary Heinonen will chair the session of the sub-group focusing on digital economy, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The meeting will discuss the challenges of the global economy and development, especially the question of how to increase productivity and inclusive growth. Latvia's Accession Agreement to the OECD will be signed and the OECD Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Programme will be launched at the meeting, too. Additionally, the OECD will present its 2016 Economic Outlook.

The Ministers' discussions will provide guidelines for the organisation's future work and its priorities. 

The OECD Forum 2016 prior to the MCM will bring together representatives of business, the civil society, the research community and media from all over the world.  Several top-level speakers from Finland will address the Forum: Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Lenita Toivakka, OECD Deputy Secretary-General Mari Kiviniemi, State Secretaries Paula Lehtomäki and Olli-Pekka Heinonen, Chairman of the Board Ole Johansson (Aker Arctic), Astrid Thors (OSCE), Madis Tiik (SITRA), Mari Pantsar (SITRA), Aape Pohjavirta (Funzi), Kati Palsanen (SOS-Children's Village), Marianne Vikkula (Slush), Tuuli Kaskinen (Demos Helsinki) ja Saku Tuominen (HundrED).

The Forum will present, for example, HundrED, an education project related to the centenary of Finland, and an Arctic intelligent transport concept.  At a Finnish porrige bar, the Forum participants can taste Finnish superfoods – oatmeal porrige and berry smoothie.

The panel and other discussions of the Open Forum can be followed as OECD webcasts and on Twitter (#OECDwk). Further information: https://www.oecd.org/forum/

Marja Koskela, Diplomatic Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, tel. +358 40 352 0463 and Kari Puurunen, Counsellor, +358 50 433 5040.

The Foreign Ministry's email addresses are of the format firstname.lastname@formin.fi.